The tests were conducted using Fly4Future’s Eagle One drone, which would take off from its docking station after detecting the presence of an unwanted drone. Upon approaching a foreign drone, Eagle One releases a net from its chassis to capture the intruder.

Rather than having to land after completing the first capture, the system is able to continue its mission, acting immediately upon detecting a second target. The autonomous system is controlled and managed by artificial intelligence, allowing for minimal human intervention. The artificial intelligence estimates the foreign drone’s size, weight, and chance of capture.

The AUDROS system utilizes Dronehub’s docking station, in which the drone is permanently housed. The hub’s advanced technology keeps the drone ready for take off, and its used battery is autonomously connected to charging following flight, enabling continuous operations without requiring the operator to replace the battery.

“The autonomy of operations is the future of drone technology,” said Dronehub designer Mateusz Siwula. “Thanks to the use of our hub, the need for the operator’s work is reduced to a minimum, all processes are automated, which translates into the efficiency of the system, its reliability and ease of mission management. In safety-related flights, as in the case of the AUDROS project, reliability and readiness for non-stop flights are key.”

The AUDROS project was conducted by a consortium made up of Czech companies BizGarden, Fly4Future and GINA Software, and Polish company Dronehub and its subsidiary Cervi Robotics, with the participation of Brno’s Military Technical and Research Institutes. The project also worked alongside the Czech prison service, with one of the system’s use cases being the monitoring of airspace above prisons to prevent smuggling.

“Our system can have very wide applications, as threats from the sky are an increasing challenge for security and safety services,” said BizGarden Project Manager Jan Orava. “AUDROS can be used to protect strategic objects or critical infrastructure, it can be used to protect the sky against terrorist attacks during mass events or to ensure the safety of VIPs.”

Implemented in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), the AUDROS project was initiated in 2020 to build a system for intercepting unwanted drones, as well as to develop a system to combat CBRN threats – chemical, biological and radiological.

Source: DroneLife

The incident occurred on July 26, when agents spotted a suspicious box truck travelling on State Highway 359. The driver drove off the highway through a ranch fence near the town.  The occupants attempted to flee the abandoned vehicle into the nearby brush. Agents apprehended 13 undocumented individuals. The migrants were from the countries of Guatemala and Mexico.

Border Patrol agents also apprehended a U.S. citizen who was in the vehicle. He was identified as Alfredo Jesus Landeros, with an active warrant with U.S. Marshal Service. Constables took custody of the driver.

Help us take a stand against criminal smuggling organisations by reporting suspicious activity to Laredo Sector Border Patrol.

Source: CBP

“We can do a lot of things that the nation asks us to do, but that’s not really our reason for being,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said on July 28. “The Army exists for one purpose, and that’s to protect the nation by being ready to fight our nation’s wars along with the joint force. We are a warfighting organization, and we should never forget that.”

The keynote speaker to open the second day of the Association of the U.S. Army’s inaugural Warfighter Summit and Exposition near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, McConville said the Army is living in “very, very challenging times.”

“I’m not sure, in my 41-plus years of service, I’ve seen a more potentially dangerous time for our country and for our military,” McConville said. 

At Fort Bragg alone, the Army has called on its soldiers to respond to several no-notice missions, McConville said. “We’ve asked a lot of the troops from Fort Bragg,” he said.

The XVIII Airborne Corps is deployed to Europe to bolster allies and partners there amid the fighting in Ukraine, while the 82nd Airborne Division just returned from there, he said. “For those in the 82nd, we have deployed you four times, no-notice, in the last three years, and every single time, you have excelled,” McConville said.

It’s appropriate that the Warfighter Summit is being held near Fort Bragg, he said. “We’re here at Warfighter Town, USA,” he said. “This is where the greatest units in the world train, live and deploy from.”

It’s also fitting that a summit focused on the warfighter is taking place now, as the U.S. faces the “acute threat” of Russia and the “pacing threat” of China, McConville said. 

“As we talk to many of our European colleagues and our allies, it was unimaginable not too long ago that we could have an unprovoked attack like this on the European continent,” he said about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the Indo-Pacific, China has an economy “nearly equal to ours or, depending on how you measure it, bigger than ours,” and it is building a “world-class military to challenge us and to challenge the world order,” McConville said.

The Army also can’t take its eye off other persistent threats, including North Korea, Iran and violent extremist threats, he said. “It’s a very, very busy time for our military and our Army,” he said.

This is why the Army needs to remain focused on the threats of today but also the challenges of tomorrow, particularly as the force transitions its focus from counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations to irregular warfare and large-scale combat operations, McConville said.

“For many of our leaders, this is an inflection point,” he said. “It’s a major shift in how we do business.”

What’s certain is the Army will face a future fight where it is contested in all domains—land, sea, air, cyber and space—and it will have to be nimble and mobile while contending with communications and navigation systems that are jammed or degraded, McConville said.

McConville said that the Army is also taking close notes on lessons learned from the fight in Ukraine.

“There are lots of lessons to be learned about what’s happening in Ukraine, which if our doctrine works, which of our weapons systems work,” he said. “We’re going to take advantage of that and take the lessons we need to set the Army on the right path for the future.”

Source: Association of the United States Army

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Slovenia Defence Market Size and Trends, Budget Allocation, Regulations, Key Acquisitions, Competitive Landscape and Forecast, 2022-27’, notes that Slovenia is heavily reliant upon its membership in international organisations such as NATO for its security. To continue to benefit from the collective defence offered by membership of NATO, Slovenia must remain an active and engaged member of the organisation. Meeting the 2% of GDP target is a good way to do so. 2022 was also the first year that Slovenia met NATO’s other spending target, which is where 20% of a country’s defence budget should be allocated to acquisitions.

Madeline Wild, Associate Defence Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced states across Europe to reassess their defence spending. Slovenia’s defence market is small, with current spending levels restricting Slovenia’s ability to bolster its defensive strength due to the small acquisition budget on offer. However, forecasted growth means that long-term investments into major platforms can be carried out due to payments being split over a multiyear timeframe.”

The country’s growing defence spending is forecast to outpace GDP increases dramatically, rising from 1.5% of GDP being spent on defence in 2022 to 2.2% in 2027. This growth aligns Slovenia with its NATO allies, who have also announced budgetary growth to meet the threat posed by Russia.

Slovenia can also strengthen its relationships with NATO allies through procurement programs. Industrial collaboration can be beneficial regarding what it can offer politically and regarding the provision of military capabilities. Joint procurement programs can help states strengthen their relationships and provide new channels for cooperation and communication.

Wild adds: “One of the major ongoing procurement programs within Slovenia is the acquisition of a C-27J aircraft. This program is part of a larger government-to-government agreement with Italy and will provide Slovenia with greater levels of independence in the aerospace domain. Currently, Slovenia is heavily reliant on its neighbours for air-based capabilities, but the acquisition of a C-27J is a significant step towards meeting Slovenia’s requirement for transport aircraft.”

Source: GlobalData

Most commercial and military C-UAS solutions rely on electromagnetic (EM) interference to detect and disrupt a UAS platform’s communications with its operator station.

Tristan Sauer, Land Domain Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “In the case of small, low-cost UAS platforms such as the commercial quadcopters employed in conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, EM-based C-UAS solutions remain particularly effective as those platforms typically possess limited EM hardening capabilities to maintain affordability. As such, EM-based C-UAS systems are readily capable of detecting and disrupting radio-frequency (RF)-based communications.”

QinetiQ’s FSOC technology employs a laser to communicate data at extremely high bandwidths, reducing platform-operator input lag whilst further securing data transmissions from detection, interception or interference. Not only does FSOC’s data transmission vector render RF-based C-UAS solutions ineffective, it also makes them more secure from a range of additional electronic warfare threats.

Sauer continues: “QinetiQ has already identified the transformative potential this FSOC could have in securing communications and data transmission beyond the UAS/C-UAS market, as the technology is modular and could therefore be integrated with a range of other air, land sea and space-based platforms. However, as this technology has yet to be employed in an actual combat scenario, questions have been raised as to how effective FSOC communications will be when faced with atmospheric interference.”

As stable FSOC communication relies on optical lasers, the system must maintain direct line-of-sight for optimal effectiveness. The capability demonstration relied on a static control module, which may not always be a viable solution on highly dynamic battlefields. It could be possible for multiple UAS platforms to inter-network using FSOC in order to extend the range at which data transmission can remain secure, however this would significantly drive up the cost of UAS platforms, which would essentially defeat their purpose as affordably expendable platforms.

Sauer adds: “Despite these challenges, the FSOC technology provides optimal value in the UAS/C-UAS market as a complementary survivability solution rather than an outright alternative to RF data transmission. Integrating both technologies would allow them to complement each other based on evolving circumstances, thus providing radically enhanced communications and data transmission capabilities for unmanned systems on the future battlefield.”

Source: GlobalData

The Olympic Games, surveillance accelerators

The Olympic Games have long been an opportunity for an intensification of population surveillance tools. This was the case for Beijing in 2008, with a massive deployment of cameras in the streets and in public transport. But also in Rio de Janeiro where from 2010, in preparation for the 2016 Olympics, the IBM company took advantage of this opportunity to develop its Integrated Operation Center, “Command and Coordination Center”. This command center aimed to aggregate data from the municipality, communities, public transport, weather, etc., with the aim of obtaining real-time information and building predictive models for managing the town. This is the beginning of the fantasy of remote control of the city.

Finally, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – which finally took place in the summer of 2021 – are positioned as the Olympic Games that have used the most technological gadgets (autonomous cars, robots, etc.) and the first uses of facial recognition. The latter was intended to filter access to certain places (by scanning the faces of athletes, journalists, etc.) using a system provided by the Japanese company NEC and the French Atos (also present at the Olympics 2024). Several associations had thus denounced, in July 2021, the danger of biometric surveillance deployed in Tokyo. If in Tokyo facial recognition has been implemented on an audience strongly limited by the health crisis, the Paris 2024 Olympics would be the first major event to deploy this type of device on millions of visitors.

Here are major events becoming security accelerators and transformers. They make it possible to bring certain hitherto illegal technologies and practices into common law, thus breaking the lock that was blocking their massification. In the middle of the vote, the Drone 2 law should be placed in the context of the future Olympic Games: the Ministry of the Interior has already purchased 600 drones and would like to be able to use them for the Olympic Games.

Industrialists and government hand in hand

The French government does not intend to miss its 2024 meeting either. Michel Cadot, the interministerial delegate for the Games, thus considers that “the question of security is a priority” when, for his part, the prefect Pierre Leutaud underlines that ” technological innovations will be a major asset”. Last September, Jean-Michel Mis, MP for the majority, submitted an entire report to the Prime Minister aimed at the legalization of these new surveillance devices, pushing for the adoption of a law facilitating biometric surveillance for the Games.

It is even clearer on the side of the security industry, who have come together in a committee called “GICAT” – “Grouping of French defense and land and air-land security industries” – a pressure lobby on the public authorities aimed at facilitating the deployment of their monitoring devices. Its delegate, Gérard Lacroix, has no problem emphasizing that the Olympic Games will be an essential issue for French companies and that he intends to make parliamentarians understand the need to “change certain texts” that are too restrictive. Understand: the texts that protect freedoms.

Other lobbies, those of the “Comité Filière Industrielle de sécurité” for “COFIS” (a sort of institutional link between the main security industries and the government) and the “Safe Cluster” (a “competitive cluster for security and safety sectors”), both directly at the origin of a lobby site “I innovate for the Olympics”.

Finally, it should be noted that the State has already begun to financially support these projects. As we wrote here, the National Research Agency (ANR) has already funded several million euros for experiments in automated video surveillance (surveillance of social networks, suspicious movements, facial recognition), even though the most of these projects are purely illegal.

Upstream preparations: crazy experiments

The Olympic Games have been preparing for a long time and the Rugby World Cup in 2023 seems to be looming to be a kind of security dress rehearsal. But before that, we must develop the technologies, train the agents who will use them and anticipate the reactions of the public. It is first of all a question of financing, of experimenting in real size with illegal technologies. While the legislative framework does not authorize in any case – for the moment – ​​this type of processing of biometric data, manufacturers and public authorities go through the very convenient process of “experiments”. These, by their temporal and spatial framing, would make surveillance (and the violation of the law) more “acceptable” – this is moreover the whole angle taken by Jean-Michel Mis in his techno-police report.

Thus, from 2020, experiments were planned and confirmed in France, in particular to try facial recognition devices. In Metz, in 2020, a facial recognition device was tested at the entrance to the stadium, drawing criticism from the CNIL (for the illegality of the project) and from supporters.

This was also the case during the Roland Garros tournament in the fall of 2020, where the French Tennis Federation (FFT), in partnership with the Strategic Committee for the “Security Industries” sector and the JOP 2024 brand team, hosted several experiments, as announced in the Senate.

Municipalities take the opportunity to join the security agenda

Beyond these experiments, several local authorities are getting organized to fundamentally transform their security arsenal. This is the case of Élancourt, which will host certain Olympic Games competitions and which signed a contract in 2019 with the company GENETEC to experiment with new types of video surveillance. The city’s objective is even to become a “showcase” for the company, with a new police station for 2024.

This is also the case of Saint-Denis, where a brand new urban supervision center (CSU) was created in 2021. The technical park, now equipped with 93 cameras, will be expanded to reach 400 cameras in 2024 for the Olympic Games. And elected officials are already planning to equip video surveillance with artificial intelligence to automate the detection of offenses.

Thus, elected officials are taking the opportunity to renew their surveillance systems and accelerate the installation of technologies, surfing on the security wave.

Fighting against the Olympic Games and the world they embody

For a long time, the Olympic Games have raised reluctance and protests from the inhabitants of the cities hosting the events, cracking the perfectly polished image produced by the IOC and the metropolises. Over the years, struggles against the Olympic Games and the world they represent have multiplied and been coordinated around the world.

In France, the NO to the 2024 Olympics and Saccage 2024 collectives emphasize the social, ecological and security plunder of the 2024 Olympics. a solarium attached to a training pool. A land occupation had even been launched. Until the expulsion of the activists and the destruction of these gardens, a few days before part of the project was declared illegal by the courts. Events are organized, as here, in Aubervilliers, on October 16, to face the Olympic aggression whether it is the case of Aubervilliers, other cities or more generally questions of surveillance (read the forum “No to Big Brother Olympic”).

Conclusion

Next week will open in Paris the Milipol exhibition, one of the largest international internal security exhibitions. An international meeting of repression. The cream of French technology will be exhibited: Thalès, Evitech, Two I, Atos and Idémia. On the program in particular, a return to the G7 in Biarritz, considered a model to follow in terms of managing major events. Inspiration for the 2024 Olympics?

Source: La Quadrature